Day 8 - August 3rd Roche Harbor

Our last day at Roche Harbor began with Bill's arrival to install the repaired muffler. Once it was in, the moment of truth was at hand. I started the engine and she fired up with no problem, and sounded just fine. Boy, what a relief. We gratefully handed a check over to Bill and made sure to get some of his business cards to pass out to marina neighbors who venture up this way and find themselves in need of help.

With Bill and his son Cody taking off in their inflatable dinghy, we walked up to the cafe for breakfast as it was 9:00 and we had not heard from Ross. As I got in line to order, Lysa went inside to secure a table for our meal. Inside, she found Ross placing his order, with Kristina seated outside at a picnic table. We sat together for about an hour, eating and chatting as the other boaters wandered by on way to a gift shop or to catch the shuttle into Friday Harbor.

After breakfast, we bid Ross and Kristina happy paddling (in their kayak) back to Pearl Island and headed back to the Reaper, where I needed to perform some needed maintainence to our batteries by filling the cells with distilled water. Once that was done, it was time to update the blog.

After lunch, we walked up to the shore for some shopping and a little ice cream. With a few souveniers in tow, we stopped to restock our ice supply and headed back to the boat, where we just kicked back in the sun and relaxed. As we soaked up the sun on the back of the boat, people stopped by to ask about our boat and the plans for the rest of our trip. For the most part, folks either visiting Roche Harbor or those deemed to be "residents" of the marina, are very friendly and as boaters, we all have that commen bond to boats and our love of seeing the world from the water.

I grilled up some pork chops for dinner and Lysa cooked up some pasta for a light summer dinner. After our tasty meal, Lysa went up to find a shady place to do some reading and I hiked up the hill behind the town to find a good vantage point for taking some sunset photos. Getting to the top and down the road to find just the right spot was a good little workout, and well worth the effort as I was able to take some nice shots of the marina as the sun was beginning to set.

Once back in town, I took a few more "parting" shots of the general store, the hotel and the building called the "Quarry Mall", which contains some offices and a very high end furnishings store. By now, it was well after 9:00, so I headed back to the boat, where this evening's feature is a quirkly english film called "Hot Fuzz", which started off well, but petered-out half way through and it was all we could do to stay awake until the end.

We'll be getting up early in the hope of leaving Roche Harbor for customs check-in at a place called "Bedwell Harbor" on South Pender Island, then it's onto the Ganges Marina on Salt Springs Island for a nice two-day stay, then it's off to beautiful Victoria, where we hope to get a first-come-first-serve slip at the small harbor marina in front of the Empress Hotel and be in very close walking distance to all the cool places, such as the Royal Museum, which is currently displaying artifacts from the Titanic. And we thought we had boat problems!